At the moment Chris Smither's cd "Leave the Light On"...especially the track 'Shillin' for the Blues' ~ there's something wondrous about cooking to music

'n this weekend I'm off to Newcastle (north of Sydney) to see Mia Dyson in a local hotel ~ I'd travel a 1000 miles to hear her..if you love the blues then this gal is a pick...her dad makes her guitars...a voice of such complexity...dripping with the blues

'n then there's the blues and roots festival at Salmon Arm BC ~ oh how I'd love to be there. Seems Mia will be singing, along with Xavier Rudd. The latter I saw a few years back at a local music festival. He was performing in a little room that held maybe 100 or so people...we were in awe of his music..his ability to play multiple instruments...there was energy to light the dark of the universe now? A lead act at the Byron Bay festival with a crowd of 10000 plus...

and the music that's speaking to you?...._________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

Iggy and the Stooges - Here Comes Success
Blondie - Denis or Dreaming or One Way or Another
The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Warren Zeavon - Werewolves of London

Those get me with a big grin on my face and joining in!

Woody Guthrie - Do Re Mi for when I'm politically cross!
I ain't got no home, John Henry, This Land is your Land for when I'm walking and feel utterly free and easy.
Leadbelly - Midnight Special for when I'm wistful
Bessie Smith - Nobody loves you, when you're down and out... for when I feel out of favour with the world and men's eyes...

Doors - anything off the first two albums for when I'm feeling a little wild and reckless!

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto because it's just sublime!
Faure's Requiem for when I remember mum...
Monty Python - Always look on the Bright Side of Life for when I remember mum (this was what she chose for her funeral music!!)
Rossini - the Cat's Duet for when I want to hear two otherwise sensible sopranos literally meowing at each other!

Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris - Love Hurts, Oooh Las Vegas and In my hour of Darkness (from Grievous Angel) for when I feel pensive but ready for a giggle.

And anything by the Beatles for when I remember my teens (I loved the Beatles during my teens!)_________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris---Griff--you old soul in a young(ish) body!!

I'm totally a words guy so rarely get too excited about songs with repetitive lyrics or vocalists I cannot understand i.e. (and I know I'm going to get trashed for this ) I do not like Van Morrison--I cannot understand a slur he says! and he is just one example. And I usually find rock too loud with the music overpowering the lyrics so I can't listen to it. Yeah so I'm happy with Simon and Garfunckle so sue me already!

Rufus Wainwright's new album... *swoon* (indeed anything by Rufus Wainwright... I've got all his albums but the first). And since seeing La Vie en Rose yesterday evening, I can't get Edith Piaf's songs out of my head. And there you have it - I like my music extravagant and over the top... well, except for when I like it quiet and restrained, of course.

David, I know what you mean about words. I wouldn't say they're MORE important to me than the music, but certainly just as important. (though I'm sure I have at least a few things in my CD collection that fly in the face of this...)

I love what I suppose you'd call plaintive songs and lyrics -- "As Long As He Needs Me", "Someone to Watch Over Me" even the Whiffenpoof song ("We're poor little lambs who have lost our way..") "Hey Jude"-- stuff that can make you cry if you're a little drunk.

I have music playing every day... and also find myself walking along with a tune in my head and in my step quite often.

When I am working I always have classical music playing. Baroque music is very good for concentration and actually gets both the sides of your brain working in tandem. Perfect when studying or writing for work.

For classical I love love love Teh Swoon Collection put together by Christopher Lawrence from ABC radio. He had a program on in teh mornings and each day he would play a song that was guaranteed to make you swoon. Hence the name of the collection. I have discs one and three. Would (probably) kill for disc two, but it is so hard to find... sigh, sob

I have a huge amount of classical music and play them all, but Swoon is my favourite.

Otherwise I love Jazz and Blues and even a bit of Swing. I love to be able to sing along and get into the music. Big band stuff is great.

I have a thing for Simply Red as I think Mick Hucknall has the most amazing voice. Have all their albums as well as the band he was in previously. I think Robbie Williams has a great voice, but hate his "trying to be a bad boy" songs. He does show tunes and big band so well.

If I am feeling the need for high energy and a bit of grunt to my day I go for Evanescence or Silverchair.

My shelves also contain lovely french songstresses such as Helene Segara and Natasha St Pierre, Zazie and a few others. French songs go for lyrics rather than tune. The words are so important and they tell a story. THe music is just an added bonus._________________If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

I'm with you, I don't like Van Morrison either. Tho' I will happily sing along to Baby please don't go by Them. Anything else by him doesn't do it for me. I do love word songs, but I will admit for those, I like Woody and Leadbelly.

When I want to feel sexy and naughty tho' I love Goldfrapp, something about Alison Goldfrapp's voice is just sooo slinky.

I do like Baroque music too tho'. I will confess tho'... I actually get nothing out of Beethoven. I love Mozart's operas tho' except for the Magic Flute which I can't seem to get into at all.

I do like Emmylou Harris' last album Tumbling into Grace tho' very fine and I love her voice.

I'm the punk generation, which is why I love the Clash, the Damned and the sheer nerve of the Sex Pistols (God save the Queen, the fascist regime!!) for some reason it was banned on the BBC!!

I do like Patti Smith too. Land is her classic album with Horses on it and a fabulous version of Gloria...(Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine... My sins' my own they belong to me...)

A lesser known punk band, the Rezillos I also love with songs like I love my Baby 'cos she does good Sculpture.

More recently I love Regina Spektor, CSS and Arcade Fire. I have yet to really listen to Rufus Wainwright, but I do like his dad... possibly more than he does!! I shall try to listen to both him and Martha. I also like the songs and singing of Amy Winehouse. The woman is a nutcase, but she's a superb singer._________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

David and Griffin...I will speak to you both again...however not just yet...Van the Man "Into the Mystic"...I could sing along with Van until the cows stop jumping over the moon..

Debbie...I feel like visiting your music shelves for at least 25 years...they sound wondrous...bit like yeself_________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

Griffin, I love Rufus Wainwright too. Some of his songs are just so fabulous you wish you could sing along and actually sound good!

Now I have even more tunes through my head for the day. Nothing like a moving soundtrack to life...._________________If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

Well, speaking of Rufus, the soundtrack of Brokeback MountainThe Maker Makes..I can hear his voice simply by looking at these lyrics:

One more chain I break
To get me closer to you,
One more chain does the maker make
To keep me from busting through

One more notch I scratch
To keep me thinkin' of you,
One more notch does the maker make
Upon my face so blue

Get along, little doggies
Get along, little doggies

One more smile I fake
And try my best to be glad,
One more smile does the maker make,
Because he knows I'm sad

Oh Lord, how I know
Oh Lord, how I see
That only can the maker make
A happy man of me

Get along, little doggies
Get along, little doggies
Get along

methinks I was a weeping when that was playing during the film...seems like yesterday

A gorgeous elderly friend of mine, since died, left me her Edith Piaf cassettes ~ since it's "La Vie en Rose" time, am playing them a bit more ...

Bernice had a wonderful take on life...when I was worried about something, she'd ask me if there was anything I could do about it...if I said 'No' or 'Not really'...her response would be 'Then why worry.'...

ah... _________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

I guess I pretty much stuck by what I discovered in my teens, that faraway time being between 1975 and 1982, but I have been known to appreciate more recent discoveries !
That said, maybe the biggest revelation for me was the Beatles. By the time I realized that those songs I loved so much were by them, they had already separated, but I guess my parents listened to the radio a lot, because I had pretty much assimilated many of their music before I even knew of them. I practicaly learned english with them ! I do love "Eleanor Rigby", it's one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard, but so many of their songs have stood the test of time with their elegant purity and simplicity.
I am also a big fan of Pink Floyd, up to the moment when Roger Waters left the group. After that it wasn't the same. But I will stand by this : "The Wall" is in my very humble opinion the very best rock album ever written. Such music, and such powerful text ! Not to disparage on the marvel that is "Wish you were here", mind you.
I do like the upbeat melody of most of Supertramp, and I really really love the pure energy and innocence of early rock'n roll, the Buddy Holly - Chuck Berry - Gene Vincent kind.
I guess I must be about the only person on the planet, and probably the only french, who really does NOT like Edith Piaf. Can't explain why, I just know her way of singing irritates me, even if the texts are beautiful. Same thing for Barbara and Jean Ferrat.
I'd rather listen to Georges Brassens, and more recent french singers like Francis Cabrel or Patrick Bruel, whose are all more about words than music. And there is a kind of genius here, named Jean-Jacques Goldman, who has a rare talent for writing songs, for himself or others (2 albums for Celine Dion, among others). He is not the greatest singer we have, not by a long shot, but his words are so powerful.
And even if I am not really a fan, I do admit that our biggest french rock star, Johnny Hallyday (imagine Elvis with a 45 year long career), can move me a lot. He has this strange quality to his voice, which is powerful and yet full of tragedy. And for some time now he has worked with great writers who have given him strong texts, which he has imbued with so much strength and power and made his own.
But what I listen to most of the time is classical or film music ! I do love Beethoveen and could happily renounce all music for the sake of the 9th symphony, that wondrous treasure chest of notes, so perfectly assembled it makes you believe in a higher power. I also like Wagner, whose bombastic music hides treasures of sentiment (Tristan and Isolde anyone ?). And Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, whose inner tragedy can be heard in many of his works. Some room for Mozart too, even if I really discovered his music thanks to Milos Forman's Amadeus. Such perfection... No contemporay or modern music. When there is no melody, I just don't get it. I can take Penderecki just as long as a Kubrick shot lasts, but certainly not listen to it otherwise !
And film music you say ? Not your average run of the mill everyday soundtrack. I like composers. Bernard Herrmann (his "Ghost and Mrs Muir" is one of the most beautiful things ever written), John Williams (alright, I'm a total "Star Wars" fan, but he did much more than that, and not just "Jaws" !), the extraordinary and little known Jerry Goldsmith, who I once called "Ennio Morricone with genius". Movie music is about emotion mostly, the good one anyway in my book, and these guys are the cream of the crop. I'll give his dues to Hans Zimmer, of "Gladiator" fame, who can be pretty good, and James Horner, he of "Titanic" success, who has a nice touch when he is not busy copying himself, which he unfortunatly does too often.

'that wondrous treasure chest of notes"..charlsy, that should be in the poetry thread

a truly beautiful post..thanks_________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

Well I knew I'd get into trouble with someone (and dragged poor Griff along with me)---am not surprised it is the madme !

Rufus Wainwright is one of the few current-right now-startypes I actually listen to and really really like! He is the type of singer-songwriter I like and he really lays it on the line and takes chances.

Hey Griffin--I"m pretty sure Rufus is pretty close to Loudon, just not as close as his is to his sainted Mom! The McGarrigle Sisters were huge with me growing up and I anticipate the rare disc they put out nowadays!_________________Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!